Knowing how to pack a suitcase constitutes the most significant learning experience I have acquired in Life. More often than not, we pack the wrong things on our life journeys and end up regretting the things we did not do because of lack of proper attire. Or, if you are my mother, wrinkles. What gives me pride does not rely on the fact that I can fold clothes but rather on what use those clothes have given me on my journeys.

My life’s suitcase has afforded me with a pair of swimming trunks in which I have shown a boy how to dive headfirst into a river. To teach something to someone, especially how to use his head, can be the most gratifying experience on any given afternoon and that boy has forever reminded me that I was the one who taught him that very special lesson.

Comfortable shoes have led me to lose myself through the streets of Montmartre in my eternal quest for literary wisdom, climb the Adirondacks in complete contemplation of Nature and its surroundings and march peacefully through the valley of Caracas when I, along with my compatriots, feel that the Government has been trampling on our inalienable rights. The soles of those shoes may be a bit tarnished, yet they have given me an unequivocal balance of body, mind and spirit through all the adventures I have put them up to.

That suitcase has also allowed me a woolen sweatshirt which has protected me from cold nights in Maine where I tucked my campers into bed after an evening of imaginative stories, walked in companionship through Bostonian or Parisian bridges conversing about world affairs with other internationals and embraced a loved one in a memorable concert in Oslo, thinking to myself that it can never be warmer.

Those are the experiences I value most. To embark upon a journey with a suitcase filled with proper clothes and return to my country with a trunk full of memories. However tarnished my suitcase is and however wrinkled my clothes are, nothing can compare to the wrinkle of satisfaction that forms in my mind when I unpack and see where those clothes led me to.-

signed sealed delivered, Paris: I'm yoursss!!!!!! Mi tota, I always knew, that with you (or Casablanca) WE'LL ALWAYS HAVE PARIS...count on it, because we all do...acuerdate mi tota, we are destined to such experiences in life, we never thought we would...but life is like a box of choc!! you never know what you're gonna get...and you've gotten great flavor so far!